MPs report gives green light to DIY abortions

MPs report gives green light to DIY abortions

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abortion

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Nadine Dorries

Protest: Nadine Dorries is said to be angry that Lib Dem MP Evan Harris 'manipulated' the report

Women should be allowed to perform abortions at home, say MPs

Women should be allowed to perform abortions at home as part of a major liberalisation of the law, MPs say today.

An influential report opens the way to easier abortions by calling for nurses to carry out terminations and an end to the need for two doctors' signatures.

But it said there was no scientific evidence the 24-week limit on abortions - lowered from 28 weeks in 1990 - should be cut further.

Figures show that last year only one in 12 abortions was carried out after more than 13 weeks' gestation and only 136 of the 201,173 abortions in England and Wales were carried out on foetuses of 24 weeks or older.

The House of Commons science and technology committee was investigating if the law should change because of developments in neonatal care.

It said there was no evidence to show survival rates of 24-week-old babies had improved or that foetuses of this age feel pain.

The report was rushed out at midnight only days after the final evidence was heard.

It will infuriate campaigners and inflame debate on the Human Tissues and Embryos Bill, which will be used by MPs to call for changes in the law.

But the medical establishment is likely to welcome the recommendations, including calls for women to take "abortion pills" at home.

Now the 30 per cent of women having drug-induced terminations have to take two tablets under medical supervision.

The first pill detaches the foetus from the womb and the second, taken two days later, induces miscarriage within hours. But there are fears that women are aborting "on the bus" as they leave hospital after taking the second pill.

Today's report says Parliament should follow the U.S. by allowing women to take the final pill in "comfort" at home.

Crucially the committee also rejected evidence from University College Hospital that as many as three out of four babies will survive at 24 weeks.

The committee instead relied on the nationwide EPIcure study, which found only 11 per cent of babies born at 23 weeks survive to go home.

The report - Scientific Developments Relating to the Abortion Act 1967 - also said the need for two doctors' signatures may delay abortions, does not guarantee safety and should be removed.

It called for better guidance on the meaning of "serious handicap" - a label which allows abortions up to birth but could be used to abort babies with treatable conditions

It said nurses and midwives should be given the right to perform early terminations as well as being allowed to sign forms permitting abortion.

But the conclusions provoked bitter ness as two MPs on the committee refused to sign up to the report and called for a tightening of the law.

They published an alternative "minority report" branding the committee's findings as "shameful" and claiming it had made selective use of evidence, used biased witnesses and ignored ten international studies.

They say the 11-strong committee had been heavily influenced by LibDem MP Evan Harris, a prominent pro-choice campaigner known as Dr Death by colleagues.

Miss Dorries, a former nurse, and Dr Spink are said to be angry that Dr Harris, the MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, has appeared to manipulate the conduct of the inquiry.

Dr Harris, joint secretary of the All Party Parliamentary Pro-Choice Group, is renowned for campaigning for euthanasia and easier abortion laws.

Dr Spink said: "I am appalled at these conclusions and will be arguing for a reduction from 24 weeks, for a tightening not relaxation of abortion laws, including resisting home abortions."

Labour MP Jim Dobbin, chairman of the Pro-Life Group, said: "The abortion inquiry report is now the Evan Harris report. Anyone who successfully puts forward 126 amendments means that it is essentially his report."

He accused the committee of "ignoring scientific developments which are crucial to the debate".

But Dawn Primarolo, the Public Health Minister, told the committee last week that the consensus among scientists was that there was no reliable evidence to support a change in the law.

The 1967 Abortion Act could be opened for amendments under the Human Tissue and Embryos Bill, which will be in the Queen's Speech next month.

It was last amended in 1990 when the upper time limit was cut from 28 weeks to 24 for most terminations.

The figures for last year showed abortion rates were four per cent up on 2005.

That data also showed that more than 5,000 abortions were on girls under 16, the legal age of consent for sex.